Farmed Rabbits in Australia

Transcription

1 Farmed Rabbits in Australia A report for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation by Dr Sandra J Eady January 2003 RIRDC Publication No 02/144 RIRDC Project No CSU-1A

2 2003 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN ISSN Farmed rabbits in Australia Publication No. 02/144 Project NCSU-1A The views expressed and the conclusions reached in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of persons consulted. RIRDC shall not be responsible in any way whatsoever to any person who relies in whole or in part on the contents of this report. This publication is copyright. However, RIRDC encourages wide dissemination of its research, providing the Corporation is clearly acknowledged. For any other enquiries concerning reproduction, contact the Publications Manager on phone Researcher Contact Details Dr Sandra Eady CSIRO Livestock Industries FD McMaster Laboratory Locked Bag 1, Armidale NSW 2350 Phone: Fax: Sandra.Eady@csiro.au In submitting this report, the researcher has agreed to RIRDC publishing this material in its edited form. RIRDC Contact Details Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Level 1, AMA House 42 Macquarie Street BARTON ACT 2600 PO Box 4776 KINGSTON ACT 2604 Phone: Fax: rirdc@rirdc.gov.au. Website: Published in January 2003 Printed on environmentally friendly paper by Canprint ii

3 Foreword The prime activity of this project was to develop a breeding program for the meat rabbit industry using advanced genetic technologies with a strong emphasis on improving traits related to enterprise profitability. This area of research was chosen for two reasons; the first being the need to provide performance-tested animals to the industry; and the second being the breadth of information on housing, husbandry and management the project would generate in the process of conducting a commercial breeding operation. This publication covers the development of a breeding objective for the industry to maximise financial return, the evaluation of rabbits breeds against this objective, the design of a breeding program to improve traits of economic importance, and the delivery of this technology to the meat rabbit industry. This collaborative project was funded by CSIRO Livestock Industries and RIRDC. This report, a new addition to RIRDC s diverse range of over 900 research publications, forms part of our New Animal Products R&D program, which aims to accelerate the development of viable new animal industries. Most of our publications are available for viewing, downloading or purchasing online through our website: downloads at purchases at Simon Hearn Managing Director Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation iii

4 Acknowledgements The Crusader team are grateful to the rabbit farmers who assisted in this project in a number of ways - by providing data in farmer surveys, donating foundation breeding stock, giving advice on design of sheds and facilities, providing feedback on project outcomes such as software design and organising regional workshops, at which Crusader results were presented. We also wish to thank Dr Peter McInnes for his constant encouragment over the 3 years of the project. His support and guidance played an important part in the project s success. The Crusader project has been a team effort with contributions from Ian Franklin, Kishore Prayaga, Kerrie-Anne Schumacher, Jim Flack, Sue Belson and, not least, John Smith, without whose efforts we would still be talking about what to do rather than getting on and doing it. I personally wish to acknowledge my friend and colleague Dr Malcolm McIntosh, CEO of CSIRO, with whom I was working when the idea of rabbit farming first caught my imagination. Malcolm s encouragement was accompanied by very explicit instructions that if CSIRO was going to breed rabbits they had to be the biggest and best in Christendom. We have made the first tentative steps on that path and I regret that Malcolm is not here to see our endeavours. This work was financially supported by CSIRO Livestock Industries and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. We are appreciative of the significant resources both organisations provided to assist the emerging meat rabbit industry in Australia. Dr Sandra J Eady Project Leader CSIRO Livestock Industries iv

5 Contents Foreword... iii Acknowledgements... iv Executive Summary... vi 1. Introduction to the Crusader Project Industry background Project goals Breeding Objective Introduction Income and expenses used to estimate profit Deciding on traits to be included in the breeding objective Breed Evaluation Which breed of rabbit is best? Setting up the breed evaluation How the different breeds performed Reproductive traits of the doe Individual growth traits Summary of breed evaluation Design of the Crusader Breeding Plan Arriving at a population structure for the breeding program Optimising rates of genetic improvement Schedules within the Crusader breeding plan Male selection Female selection Response to selection Application in Industry Information services for the general public Educational and community activities Media activities First base information pack Farmer-focused services Field days and meetings Specialist workshops Sale of breeding stock Software for production recording Linked genetic analysis Ongoing Research Support for Industry Industry feedback on research and development priorities Research priorities Industry development priorities Analysis of enterprise costs and returns Directions for future research and development References Appendices Survey for industry feedback on research and development priorities Representative list of media activities for Crusader during 2001/ Additional project activities with various parties List of scientific publications from Crusader v

6 Executive Summary The Crusader is Australia s first research and development project to support the emerging farmed rabbit meat industry in this country. The project was conducted by CSIRO Livestock Industries with financial support from Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation for a 3 year period from August 1999 to July Project staff and facilities were located at the FD McMaster Laboratory at Armidale in New South Wales. Since bans on farming rabbits were lifted in the majority of states, the industry has grown rapidly and its estimated size in 2002 is 200 farms producing approximately 160 tonne of meat with a farm gate value of $1 million. Domestic market demand for farmed rabbit meat is strong and projections are for the industry to grow to 700 tonnes by The prime activity of the project was to develop a breeding program for meat rabbits using advanced genetic technologies, with a strong emphasis on improving traits related to enterprise profitability. This area of research was chosen for two reasons; the first being the virtual absence of performance tested breeding stock selected for productivity; and the second being the breadth of information on housing, husbandry and management the project would generate in the process of conducting a commercial breeding operation. The project was given the name Crusader, to establish a distinct identity in the industry. The goals of the project were to: i. maximise economic returns for meat rabbit farmers by delivering a breeding program with a clearly defined goal that balances selection for traits contributing most to farm income ii. improve the efficiency of rabbit breeding and management by delivering appropriate software for recording pedigree and production data, and by providing technical updates to farmers through publications and breeders workshops iii. deliver superior breeding stock to industry by providing rabbit farmers with access to rabbits from the research project. Before one can embark on a breeding program a decision must be reached as to the overall goal or breeding objective. In rational livestock breeding programs, maximising profit is the over-arching goal. To establish a stable and sustainable industry, the emerging meat rabbit industry will need to return positive profits to breeders early in the enterprise life. Therefore, a focus on maximising profits was chosen as the breeding objective for the Crusader Project. The first step in this process was to determine current level of production, returns for product and costs of producing that product, allowing the calculation of profit for a rabbit enterprise. Data to calculate profit were collected through a survey of Australian farmers and from the international literature. Four traits were identified that were amenable to genetic improvement and played a key role in contributing to profit. These were litter size at birth, mortality rate from birth to weaning, post-weaning growth and feed to bodyweight conversion ratio. This combination of traits was simplified into an index based on the estimated breeding value (EBV) for number of kittens weaned per litter and average daily liveweight gain of grower rabbits. This index reflects a preliminary objective that will be progressively refined as more information on other factors affecting enterprise efficiency, such as disease incidence, is gathered. Index ($/doe/year) = (Number Weaned EBV x $33.71) + (Average Daily Gain EBV x $10.61) The next step was to develop a breeding program to improve the base population of meat rabbits in Australia. This required evaluation of the most common breeds available (New Zealand White, Californian and Flemish Giant), and some of their crosses so that a decision could be made on vi

7 whether to proceed with a structured crossing system based on 2-3 pure breeds, which is common in rabbit producing countries in Europe, or to undertake a single breed selection program. The breed evaluation showed that, for reproduction traits such as litter size, purebred New Zealand does were just as good as crossbred does, indicating that the level of hybrid vigour being expressed is not large enough to warrant a structured cross-breeding program. It would be unwise to base a breeding program on purebred Californian rabbits, and possibly Flemish Giant, because their reproductive performance was poorer than New Zealand Whites. For growth traits, the New Zealand White and Flemish Giant purebreds performed the best, with similar results for the crosses of these two breeds. Purebred Californians grew the slowest and crosses with Californian were intermediate. These results suggested two options for the breeding program: Develop a superior line of purebred New Zealand White rabbits Develop a synthetic or composite strain of rabbits by selecting the best individual rabbits irrespective of breed The decision was made to do the latter, so that selection intensity could be maximised for the given population of animals (that is the very best rabbits, regardless of breed, could be used), and so that genetic variation in the foundation population was maximised. In July 2001, the Crusader breeding program commenced using the index defined above. Response to selection has been encouraging, with the trend in both phenotypic data and estimated breeding values showing an improvement for the two traits in the breeding objective. There has been about a 10% increase in average daily growth rate and a 5% increase in number of kittens weaned. There also has been an accompanying improvement in individual liveweight of rabbits at 10 weeks of age and in number of kittens born alive per litter. The trend in estimated breeding values indicates that improvements can be attributed in part to genetic gain but there has also been a corresponding improvement in rabbit management and husbandry. In addition, low producing animals that had to be retained as part of the breed comparison were culled, giving an immediate lift to current productivity levels. One of the project goals was to assist in the development of suitable software for recording production information. Preliminary development of software was done within the Crusader project and then continued with a rabbit farmer, Daniel Brown of GROWTEC Rabbits, who had already written a program using a compatible system. Rabbit Central Version 2 is now commercially available for approximately $700-$800, including software support. Rabbit Central is rabbit management and performance recording software designed to assist commercial rabbit breeders with their daily management records and performance recording data. The latest version is a combination of the user interface and database design developed by Crusader, with the functionality of earlier Rabbit Central versions. Results from Crusader have been transferred to the industry though a wide range of avenues. Sales of breeding stock to industry commenced in September 2001, and to date in excess of 250 high index performance-tested animals have been purchased by rabbit farmers. The project has hosted two field days at the FD McMaster Laboratory and held a series of workshops across a number of states. The Crusader web page ( is heavily used by both farmers and the general public, recording in excess of 400 hits per month. Media and general public interest in the project has been very strong with project staff contributing to over 75 radio, television and print items over the three years and handling in excess of 500 general enquiries. There have been 5 scientific publications from the project to date. vii

8 The meat rabbit industry in Australia has grown considerably over the life of the Crusader project, from production of 106 tonnes of meat in 1999 to an estimated 159 tonnes in The industry is now a national one with farmers in most states, and there is strong product demand from urban centres in general. There is a clear need for ongoing support for both research and industry development. It is vital that the breeding program continue at this stage, given the investment in establishing the facilities, setting up selection procedures and establishing the Crusader brand name. Future research should move to a production system focus with emphasis on improving key profit drivers for meat rabbit production. The meat rabbit industry has identified individual areas of work within this framework that are of high priority. These include management of disease, improved survival of kittens and growers, providing optimum nutrition, and benchmarking performance. New research and development activities should aim to deliver information systems, feed formulations and improved genotypes to optimise productivity and profit. Industry development would benefit from the formation of a national association to represent the meat rabbit industry, that could facilitate access to information and lobby on behalf of the industry on relevant issues. viii

9 1. Introduction to the Crusader Project The Crusader is Australia s first research and development project to support the emerging farmed rabbit meat industry in this country. The project was conducted by CSIRO Livestock Industries with financial support from Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation for a 3 year period from August 1999 to July Project staff and facilities were located at the FD McMaster Laboratory at Armidale in New South Wales. 1.1 Industry background Wild rabbits have caused enormous environmental and ecological damage in Australia. All rabbit farming for meat production was banned until 1987, when Western Australia changed its legislation to allow farming of rabbits in that state. New South Wales and Victoria followed suit in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and now farming for meat is allowed in all states with the exception of Queensland. Despite the ban on farming, Australia has had an established rabbit meat industry for many years, based on harvesting wild rabbits. In the early 1990s, over 2.7 million wild rabbits per annum were sold for meat (Foster 1999). With the release, in 1996, of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RCD) as a biological control agent, the population of wild rabbits was dramatically reduced (Bowen and Read 1998), with only 100,000 being harvested per annum in the late 1990s (Foster 1999). Today, farmed rabbit is becoming an interesting part of modern Australian cuisine, reflecting the place of rabbit in European and Asian cooking. The restaurant trade is supplied largely by farmed rabbit meat and demand currently far outstrips supply. The opportunity to meet existing demand for rabbit meat and to build on the growth potential of the industry has been identified by a number of people over the last five years and commercial rabbit farms have been established in all states except Queensland. The meat rabbit industry is currently experiencing high demand for farmed rabbit. In 1998/99 production of farmed rabbit meat was 106 tonnes (Foster 1999), compared to 72 tonnes for wild harvested rabbit. This represented a farm gate gross value of $0.62 million which rose to $0.9 million in 1999/2000 (RIRDC 2001). Forecasts for growth by 2004/05 are that the domestic consumption of farmed rabbit will reach 692 tonnes (Foster 1999). Anecdotal evidence from rabbit processors (Crusader Field Day September 2001) is that the market could currently accommodate 300,000 to 400,000 rabbits per annum, or 380 to 510 tonnes of meat without additional market development and promotion. Under the scenario that farmed rabbit would substitute directly for the level of wild rabbit being consumed in the early 1990s, predicted consumption is 1040 tonnes (Foster 1999). While the two products vary in description and 100% substitution is unlikely, these figures indicate that a level of 1000 tonnes of rabbit meat consumption is possible in Australia, but it may occur in different homes and circumstances to historical consumption of wild rabbit. Consumption of 692 tonnes (545,000 rabbits) per annum by 2004/05 appears realistic. The industry size would need to be 15,600-18,200 breeding does to support this level of production at a turnoff rate of 30 to 35 meat rabbits per doe/year. This level of productivity per doe could be achieved by 7 litters per annum turning off 4-5 rabbits per litter; a realistic goal for the Australian industry given the quality of breeding stock available. In 1998/99, there were an estimated 115 farms with an average size of 57 does (Foster 1999), giving approximately 6,560 does in production. If a target consumption of 692 tonnes is to be achieved by 2004/05, there would need to be 60% growth in doe numbers for the next 2 years. Given the intensive nature of the production system and expertise of management required for profitable production, it is likely that the industry will under-achieve this growth, rather than over-achieve. 1

10 For people in rural areas wishing to diversify their incomes, the rabbit industry offers a number of strong economic advantages; there is an established market and marketing system for rabbit meat in Australia, the economics of the industry are based on commercial product rather than inflated values for scarce breeding stock, entry costs are relatively low and many farms have existing infrastructure that can be used for rabbit farming. This is an emerging industry that has a high likelihood of sustainable returns, offering diversity of income in rural and regional centres within a realistic timeframe. 1.2 Project goals The prime activity of the joint RIRDC/CSIRO project was to develop a breeding program for the industry using advanced genetic technologies, with a strong emphasis on improving traits related to enterprise profitability. This area of research was chosen for two reasons; the first being the virtual absence of performance tested breeding stock selected for productivity (only one rabbit breeder was using estimated breeding values for selection); and the second being the breadth of information on housing, husbandry and management the project would generate in the process of conducting a commercial breeding operation. The project was given the name Crusader, to establish a distinct identity in the industry. The goals of the project were to: i. maximise economic returns for meat rabbit farmers by delivering a breeding program with a clearly defined goal that balances selection for traits contributing most to farm income ii. improve the efficiency of rabbit breeding and management by delivering appropriate software for recording pedigree and production data, and by providing technical updates to farmers through publications and breeders workshops iii. deliver superior breeding stock to industry by providing rabbit farmers with access to rabbits from the research project. 2

11 2. Breeding Objective 2.1 Introduction Before one can embark on a breeding program, a decision must be reached as to the overall goal or breeding objective. In rational livestock breeding programs, maximising profit is the over-arching goal. To establish a stable and sustainable industry, the emerging meat rabbit industry will need to return positive profits to breeders early in the enterprise life. Therefore, a focus on maximising profits was chosen as the breeding objective for the Crusader Project. The first step in this process is to determine current levels of production, returns for product and costs of producing that product. (This study was presented and published at the 4 th World Rabbit Congress in 2000 and a fully referenced version can be found in the Appendix 8.4). 2.2 Income and expenses used to estimate profit A profit function was used to derive the economic values for various production traits of farmed rabbits. Mean values for the variables used in the profit function represent the present average rabbit enterprise in Australia. These values were from a survey of rabbit farmers and, where there were no available data, values from international literature were used. Profit was calculated as the difference between costs and returns. The Australian survey data included responses from 19 farmers with an average herd size of 50 does (range 12 to 158 does). Mean values for mortality rates, prices, weights, litter size and number of parities per year were taken from the survey. Figures for daily weight gain and feed consumption were drawn from the international literature. The fixed cost component was estimated from the cost of establishing a rabbit research facility for 120 does at Armidale in This included capital costs of $22,000 for building and $8,000 for water, rabbit cages, feeders and ventilation. To calculate annual depreciation, a life of 40 years was assumed for the building and 10 years for equipment. Interest on capital investment was assumed to be 8% per annum. An amount of $500 was assumed for insurance and rates and, although not strictly a fixed cost, an amount of $500 per annum was assumed for electricity and water. All of these costs were totalled and expressed per doe per year, rather than split between classes of breeding stock. Labour costs were not included in the profit function, profit being considered in this case to be the return to the farmer for labour contributed to the enterprise. Over a medium term of 10 years, change in labour inputs associated with improvement in litter size born, mortality to weaning, average daily gain and feed conversion were considered to be negligible. Likewise, change in pen space due to faster turnoff and increased numbers of grower rabbits would be small and have not been accounted for. The basic parameters used to calculate profit are given in Table 2.1. Profit per doe per year was $ For a 300 doe unit (considered to be a full-time occupation for one person), this represents an annual return for labour of $21,723. The Federal Pastoral Award rate in for an operator/manager was $22,700, so at current profit levels, average income from rabbit farming is close to basic farm wages. 3

12 Table 2.1 Mean value for variables affecting meat rabbit profit for Australian enterprises and the absolute effect on profit of varying the Australian figures by 10% Variable Description Australian Absolute effect of 10% change in variable on profit ($) Mortality rate - birth to weaning (%) 21 a 4.59 Mortality rate from weaning to slaughter 8.2 a 2.19 (%) Mortality rate for adult rabbits (%) Price/kg of live young rabbits $2.41 a Price/kg of culled rabbits $2.00 a 0.14 Price of bucks and does $20.00 b 1.14 Price/kg of food $0.37 a Days of lactation Days of pregnancy Live weight at maturity (kg) 4 b 0.14 Live weight at slaughter (kg) 2.79 a Weight at birth (kg) Weight at weaning (kg) Maintenance requirements c of a male during its reproductive life (kg/yr) Feed consumption of rabbits for replacement from 2 4 months (kg) Maintenance requirements during pregnancy (kg/d) Maintenance requirements during lactation (kg/d) Extra requirements for each gestated rabbit (kg/d) Extra requirements for each suckled rabbit (kg/d) Feed intake per young rabbit during lactation (kg/d) Feed intake per young rabbit post-weaning (kg/d) Daily gain during lactation (kg/d) Daily gain post-weaning to slaughter (kg/d) Litter size (no. of rabbits) 8.2 a Number of parities per year 7.4 a Replacement rate of the farm 0.5 a 1.25 Health costs per adult rabbit $2.60 a 0.15 Proportion of slaughtered adult rabbits with zero commercial value Ratio of bucks to does 1/7 NA Female and male fixed costs $40.92 b 4.68 a From farmer survey; b from authors estimates; no superscript - variables taken from international literature. NA not applicable; c feed requirements and costs are expressed per kg of feed as delivered not on a dry matter basis. In Australia, the most common carcass weights required to meet customer demand are 1.0 to 1.25 kg for whole carcass butcher shop trade to the general public, and 1.4 to 1.7 kg for carcass portions to the restaurant trade. Mortality rates on Australian farms are higher than in Europe - 21% compared to 13% from birth to weaning and 8% compared to 5% from weaning to slaughter. This is understandable given the maturity of the industry in Europe and the lack of management experience in Australia. However, the European figures give a sound target for us to work towards, and should 4

13 we achieve such improvements in survival, the profit per doe would lift to $99.35, a significant improvement in financial returns to farmers. Feed cost is a significant component of total cost in the rabbit enterprise, estimated to be 71% of total cash costs in an Australian industry benchmarking study (Wondu Holdings 2001), and in this study estimated to be 72% of the total cost of production (including fixed costs of 18%). Therefore, buying feed is the major outlay for rabbit farmers and profit is correspondingly sensitive to feed prices (Table 2.1). Due to the size of the industry, production of rabbit feed is a minor component in the business of livestock feed manufacture. Manufacturers have to deal with small orders, make limited runs of feed to ensure fresh product, and supply feed in bags rather than in bulk. Some of these inefficiencies should be removed once individual farms attain production units in the order of 100 does, and manufacturers have indicated that feed cost could drop by as much as 18% (Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd, Tamworth). Even when offset by the additional capital requirement for bulk handling facilities, such a reduction in cost would be significant. 2.3 Deciding on traits to be included in the breeding objective First we must deal with the issue of which traits should be improved through changes to management and which are most appropriate for genetic improvement. In formulating breeding objectives we assume that resources are already being used efficiently and that inefficiencies, if they exist, are not included as costs. At this stage of our investigation, it is difficult to predict how much change could be made to variables such as mortality and feed cost by adjusting management or enterprise size. However, it is possible to assess the sensitivity of economic values to changes in such parameters to determine the risk in constructing a breeding objective based on current production data. In due course, the mean values we have used may need to be changed and economic values recalculated as the industry improves the efficiency with which it uses resources. Our first task is to decide which traits should be included in the breeding objective and which should be omitted because they have little effect on profit. The impact on profit of a 10% change in each variable can be seen from Table 2.1. This can be used as a rough guide as to where to start. However, some variables with large effects, such as price paid for feed and market rabbits, are external influences; others, such as number of parities per year and live weight at slaughter, are determined by management and are easily adjusted. In order of magnitude of effect, this leaves us with changes in litter size born (LSB), mortality rate from birth to weaning (MORTW), daily liveweight gain post-weaning (ADG) and feed intake per young rabbit post-weaning. Hence these former 3 traits and feed conversion (FC) have been selected to make up a breeding objective. The change in profit, or economic value, from 1 phenotypic standard deviation change in litter size born, mortality from birth to weaning, post-weaning live weight gain and feed conversion is given in Table 2.2. Estimates of phenotypic variance and heritability have been drawn from the literature and a list of references can be found in the Appendix 8.4. The economic values for the 4 traits suggest a similar weighting should be given to litter size at birth and mortality rate from birth to weaning, followed by a lower weighting for feed conversion and a substantially lower weighting for average daily gain. The contribution of each of these traits to a selection index will primarily be a function of the product of the economic value and the heritability for each trait (Smith 1983). Published heritability estimates are given in Table 2.2 allowing the calculation of the likely contribution of each trait to an index. 5

14 Table 2.2 Mean phenotypic variance (σ 2 p) and heritability (h 2 ) from the literature, and economic value (EV) for traits in the breeding objective and their relative contribution to the aggregate genotype Trait σ 2 p h 2 EV ($) Approximate Contribution (%) Litter size at birth (no. of rabbits) Mortality rate from birth to weaning (%) Post-weaning weight gain (g/d) Feed conversion ratio (g feed/ g gain) If the phenotypic variances used for these 4 traits are significantly different in Australian rabbit populations, the economic values presented here may be incorrect. In the absence of any Australian estimates when this study was undertaken, a simple sensitivity analysis can be used to assess the impact of using poorly estimated parameters. If we assume the parameters for litter size have the highest accuracy (as they are the most numerous in the literature) and set the economic value for litter size to 1, then the relative economic value for the other 3 traits can be expressed as a proportion of the value for litter size (Table 2.3). Table 2.3 Change in relativity of economic values for mortality rate from birth to weaning (MORTW), average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion (FC) compared to litter size born (LSB) when phenotypic variance is changed by plus or minus 10% Trait Change in phenotypic variance by plus or minus 10% Current ratio a +MORTW -MORTW +ADG -ADG +FC -FC LSB MORTW ADG FC a using σ 2 p from Table 2.2. This analysis shows that a plus or minus 10% error in phenotypic variance for ADG has little impact on its relative economic value (0.20 to 0.24) compared to the larger impact that the same error has on the relative economic value for FC (0.61 to 0.74) or MORTW (0.91 to 1.11). Therefore, before we proceeded to use the economic values presented in this study, further estimates of genetic parameters for some traits were obtained from rabbit populations in Australia. In addition, the combination of the four traits identified (litter size at birth, mortality rate from birth to weaning, post-weaning growth and feed to bodyweight conversion ratio) was simplified into an index based on the estimated breeding value (EBV) for number of kittens weaned per litter and average daily liveweight gain of grower rabbits. The current Crusader Index is: Index ($/doe/year) = (Number Weaned EBV x $33.71) + (Average Daily Gain EBV x $10.61) This index should be progressively modified as better economic models of enterprise efficiency are developed, and more accurate assessments of the impact of disease on performance, and the genetics of disease resistance, are obtained. 6

15 3. Breed Evaluation 3.1 Which breed of rabbit is best? To investigate breed differences, the first piece of information needed is what breeds are available in Australia. This is important because rabbit importation is difficult and expensive due to quarantine requirements. Surveys of rabbit farmers in NSW in 1999 showed that the predominant breed of meat rabbit is the New Zealand White, with a significant number of Flemish Giant and Californian rabbits. There are also other breeds being farmed but their numbers are small. The three most common breeds New Zealand White, Flemish Giant and Californian were chosen for evaluation in the Crusader Project. Pure breeds and some crosses of the three breeds were assessed. The reason for doing the crosses is that you often get crossbred rabbits showing a significant level of hybrid vigour for traits such as litter size. However, there is a cost in maintaining the pure breeds for generating crossbreds, and crossing programs are only worth-while if the pure breeds themselves give economic levels of production in their own right, and if crossbred rabbits produce more than either of the parent breeds. The benefits of hybrid vigour only appear in crossbred animals that have parents of completely different breeds. When a crossbred doe is mated back to one of the original breeds, her daughters will only express half of the hybrid vigour that she exhibited. Hybrid vigour can be maintained if a third breed is available to which to mate the crossbred doe (see Figure 3.1). However, you soon run out of new breeds and a systematic way of crossing animals is needed if the level of hybrid vigour is large enough to warrant maintaining. The alternative to this is simply to concentrate on one population of rabbits, selecting within that group for improved performance as a means of lifting production. Crusader s first goal was to investigate the relative benefits of a structured crossing system based on 2-3 pure breeds, compared to a single breed selection program. 3.2 Setting up the breed evaluation A breeding facility to accommodate 120 does and 30 bucks was purpose built for rabbits at the CSIRO FD McMaster Laboratory, Armidale, NSW in late The foundation rabbits for the breed evaluation were largely obtained as in-kind donations by rabbit farmers as a pledge of support for the project. Some Californian and Flemish Giant rabbits were purchased (price range $25-$50) to supplement rabbits provided as donations. Rabbits were sampled from as many sources as possible (see Table 3.1) so that they represented the average for each breed generally available to rabbit farmers. Table 3.1 Breed of rabbit and number of sources supplying each breed Breed of rabbit Number of sources New Zealand White (N) 19 Californian (C) 6 Flemish Giant (F) 4 The evaluation commenced in February 2000 after establishing the entire foundation stock and continued until May Doe age at first mating for the foundation stock animals varied. Subsequently, all the replacement does were first mated at weeks of age. Nest boxes were checked daily from birth to weaning to record newborn kits and to note any kit mortalities. Kits were weaned at days of age. Weaned rabbits were individually weighed, tagged and transferred to 7

16 the grower shed. Weekly liveweight was recorded for all grower rabbits up to 10 weeks of age. Rabbits were sent to slaughter at weeks of age. BUCK Breed A DOE Breed B X BUCK Breed C DOE 1 st Cross X 1 st Cross MALES for MEAT FEMALES for BREEDING ALL 2 nd Cross RABBITS for MEAT Figure 3.1 Example of a 3-way cross-breeding program to maintain hybrid vigour Within each breed, matings between bucks and does from the same farm were avoided where possible, and individual bucks were mated to a number of does from different sources so that the genes from each farm were mixed. The breed crosses that were investigated in Crusader are given in Table 3.2. Small numbers of purebred Californian and Flemish Giant does precluded the generation of all possible crosses, with each breed represented as both the male and female parent. Table 3.2 Pure breeds and breed crosses evaluated for New Zealand (N), Californian (C) and Flemish Giant (F) with breed of male parent listed first Purebred Crossbred 3-way Crossbred N x N C x C F x F C x N F X N C x (FN) F x (CN) The purebred and crossbred rabbits were evaluated for reproductive and litter traits as well as for individual growth and carcass traits. The 3-way crossbreds were evaluated only for individual growth traits, as there were too few litters in the data set to evaluate reproductive traits. A listing of the traits is given in Table

17 Table 3.3 Traits evaluated in pure and cross breeds Reproduction Growth Carcass Number of kittens born per litter (NB) Weaning weight at 5 weeks (g) Slaughter liveweight (kg) Number of kittens born Liveweight at 10 Carcass weight (kg) alive per litter (NBA) weeks (g) Number of kittens weaned per litter (NW) Dressing percentage (%) Average doe age at first successful mating (weeks) Conception rate from successful matings (%) Growth rate from 5 to 10 weeks of age (g/head/day) 3.3 How the different breeds performed Reproductive traits of the doe The relative reproductive performance of the three pure breeds and crosses is given in Figure 3.4. Litter size at birth averaged 8.1 kittens and all breeds were similar. Number of kittens born alive averaged 6.9 per litter and difference were not statistically significant (P<0.05). Averaged over all crosses, litter size at weaning was 3.3 kittens per litter, with purebred Californians and Flemish Giants performing poorly. New Zealand and New Zealand crosses were the best. Although these results demonstrate some hybrid vigour (the CN performance is better than the average of the two pure breeds), the level of hybrid vigour does not make the crossbred mother significantly better than the purebred New Zealand mother. All does were introduced to the weekly mating schedule at weeks of age. Does of all breeds first successfully mated (accepted the buck) at the same age of about weeks. Conception rate (combined over maiden and mature does) was similar for all breeds, averaging 75 %. Figure 3.2 Doe and new born litter (left) and doe with 3 week old kits (right) 9

18 3.3.2 Individual growth traits The relative performance for individual growth traits of the three pure breeds and crosses is given in Figure 3.5. There were significant differences in weaning weight with purebred Californian rabbits 11% lighter than the average of other breeds. These differences were still apparent at 10 weeks of age, with purebred Californian rabbits 12% lighter than the average of other breeds. Crossbred rabbits with >50% Californian genes were also lighter than the other breeds and their crosses. There were significant breed differences in growth rate from weaning to 10 weeks of age, with purebred Californian rabbits growing 15% slower than the average for other breeds. Californian crossbred rabbits were intermediate for growth rate, while New Zealand and Flemish Giant purebreds and their crosses had the highest growth rates. There is no suggestion of hybrid vigour for growth traits, with crossbred performance being about midway between that of the parent breeds. Carcass dressing percentage averaged 53.2% and was similar for all breeds of rabbits. Figure 3.3 Newly weaned grower rabbit at 5 weeks of age (left) and rabbits at slaughter age of approximately 12 weeks (right) 3.4 Summary of breed evaluation The breed evaluation gave a clear direction for the Crusader breeding program. However, the results should be applied to the rest of the industry with care. Although we sampled rabbits from as many farms as possible, there may still be large between-farm variation in merit that we have not accounted for in this study. For reproduction traits such as litter size, purebred New Zealand does were just as good as crossbred does, indicating that the level of hybrid vigour being expressed is not large enough to warrant a structured cross-breeding program. It would be unwise to base a breeding program on purebred Californian rabbits, and possibly Flemish Giant, because their reproductive performance was poorer than New Zealand Whites. This lower reproductive performance may be related to the level of inbreeding in these breeds, particularly the Californian breed, as there have been few introductions to Australia and the breed is small in number. For growth traits, the New Zealand White and Flemish Giant purebreds performed the best, with similar results for the crosses of these two breeds. Purebred Californians grew the slowest and crosses with Californian were intermediate. These results suggest two options for the breeding program: Develop a superior line of purebred New Zealand White rabbits Develop a synthetic or composite strain of rabbits by selecting the best individual rabbits irrespective of breed The following chapter describes the structure of the Crusader breeding program as implemented. 10

19 Figure 3.4 Mean number of kittens born alive per litter, litter size at weaning, doe age at first mating and conception rates for New Zealand White, Californian and Flemish Giant rabbits and crosses. Standard errors are denoted by bars. Number Born Alive Litter Size at Weaning Number of kittens New Zealand (N) Californian (C) Flemish Giant (F) CN Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first FN Nu mb 4 er 3.5 of 3 Kit ten 2.5 s New Zealand (N)Californian (C) Flemish Giant CN (F) Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first FN 11 Doe Age at 1st Mating Conception Rate Age (weeks) New Zealand (N) Californian (C) Flemish Giant (F) CN Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first FN % New Zealand (N) Californian (C) Flemish Giant (F) CN Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first FN

20 Figure 3.5 Mean individual liveweight (kg) at weaning and 10 weeks of age, growth rate from 5 to 10 weeks of age (g/day) and dressing percentage for New Zealand White, Californian and Flemish Giant rabbits and crosses. Standard errors are denoted by bars. Individual Weaning Weight Individual 10 Week Weight 12 Weaning Wt (g) New Californian Zealand (N) (C) Flemish Giant (F) CN FN F(CN) C(FN) Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first 10 Week Wt (g) New Californian Zealand (N) (C) Flemish Giant (F) CN FN F(CN) C(FN) Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first Average Daily Liveweight Gain Carcass dressing percentage Wt Gain per Day (g/d) % New Californian Zealand (N) (C) Flemish Giant (F) CN FN F(CN) C(FN) Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first 0 New Californian Zealand (N) (C) Flemish Giant (F) CN FN F(CN) C(FN) Rabbit breed with male parent in crosses listed first

21 4. Design of the Crusader Breeding Plan 4.1 Arriving at a population structure for the breeding program Rabbit populations in Australia are limited due to restrictions on imports and historic bans on rabbit farming, lifted in most states by The first step in formulating this breeding plan was to evaluate the most common breeds available and some of their crosses (see previous chapter on breed evaluation). The breed evaluation established that there was little to be gained from a structured cross-breeding program to produce hybrids, as commonly practised in Europe, due to the poor reproductive performance of one of the pure breeds and the relatively low level of hybrid vigour exhibited by breed crosses. This left us with two options for the breeding program to base the selection program on purebred New Zealand White rabbits (the best performing breed) or to select rabbits on merit from the full population of purebreds and crossbreds that had been created in the breed evaluation phase. The decision was made to do the latter, so that selection intensity could be maximised for the given population of animals (that is the very best rabbits, regardless of breed, could be used), and so that genetic variation in the foundation population was maximised. This strategy is also indicated if one or more of the available purebreds is highly inbred, as may well be the case. Available resources for industry research were also considered in the decision as to the optimal structure for the breeding program. In Europe, many of the purebred grand-parent lines are based on breeding groups of does with sire lines. Levels of inbreeding in such populations would be in the order of 1.2% per generation. With a potential generation interval of 30 weeks, accumulated inbreeding becomes a significant constraint to genetic improvement of the pure lines within years. In the overall industry breeding program in Europe this disadvantage is largely removed by the crossing of unrelated grand-parent lines (both selected for reproduction traits) to produce hybrid does with superior maternal performance. Values of 20% hybrid vigour for reproductive traits are commonly reported (Nofal 1996, Khalil and Afifi 2000). The majority of commercial rabbits are then produced by mating hybrid does to bucks of a different breed (which could be a 3 rd pure breed or a hybrid of two unrelated breeds), selected for growth characteristics. This system is highly organized on a industry-wide basis within the major rabbit producing countries of France, Spain and Italy. To work in Australia, dedicated producers of at least 3 pure breeds would need to exist in the industry, and for these breeds to be used in an organised and regulated manner to reap the advantages of hybrid vigour. The breed evaluation showed that the breeds in Australia would not be suitable for such a cross-breeding program and the industry is not advanced enough in size and organisation to implement an industry wide strategy. Having ruled out a similar structured cross-breeding system based on breeds already available in Australia, the next decision was whether to create maternal and paternal lines suited to crossing or whether to treat the rabbits produced during the breed evaluation as one population, regardless of breed mix, and simply select the best on an index of overall genetic merit. Given the current constraint of 120 does in the breeding facility, the option of developing a paternal and maternal line would have resulted in high rates of inbreeding and, given the inability of an emerging industry to exploit these genotypes in a systematic way, the decision was made to pursue the simpler option of developing one synthetic breed of meat rabbit. This does not preclude future introduction of another strain of rabbits that could be incorporated in a hybrid production system. In fact there would be merit in importing a maternal line from Europe as improvement in litter size is far more difficult than growth traits, due to the low heritability of litter size and the fact that the trait is expressed only in females. The INRA lines from France have had in excess of 30 generations of selection for litter size and now produce over 9 rabbits born alive per litter, an improvement of 2.4 rabbits per litter, making them possibly the best candidate for importation. The introduction of such genotypes would allow increased selection emphasis to be placed on growth, feed efficiency and disease resistance. 13

22 4.2 Optimising rates of genetic improvement The two major issues of concern to the rabbit breeding program are maximising rate of genetic progress and minimising inbreeding. With facilities for approximately 30 bucks and 120 does, effective population size becomes an important issue, especially where resources will only cover the development of one line of rabbits and inbreeding depression cannot be corrected in the commercial population by out-crossing lines. There have been significant advances in theoretical methods for optimising long term rates of genetic gain while controlling the rate of inbreeding (Meuwissen 1997; Kinghorn 1998). These theoretical developments have evolved into software tools for assisting breeders to decide on the number of offspring each potential candidate should produce in the next generation (GENCONT, Meuwissen 2002) or simultaneous choice of parents and mate allocation (mate selection) (TGRM, Kinghorn 2002). However, the software needs to be modified to be applicable to the management system found with different livestock species. For example, with sheep, all animals are mated at the one time usually once every 12 months - a much simpler system than rabbit production where a proportion of does are mated every week to give a constant turn-off of animals. This means that different sub-sets of the population are available as candidates at different times, and previous matings need to be taken into account each time future matings are planned. Therefore, to use these tools at the commencement of the project would have required a significant amount of development by the software providers and technical support, inputs that the project did not have the resources to purchase. However, plans are underway to investigate the use of TGRM, in the first instance, for the Crusader selection program. In the meantime, the approach taken was to use a structured within-family selection system because of ease of implementation and control over the design. In such a system replacement sires are drawn from each family based on truncation selection for index merit, but each sire family is maintained regardless of merit. This maintains effective population size but at the expense of reduced selection differential. An preliminary index of economic merit has been defined for Australian meat rabbit production and has been used to date to select Crusader rabbits. Index ($/doe/year) = (Number Weaned EBV x $33.71) + (Average Daily Gain EBV x $10.61) In addition, some culling based especially on disease status is practised. 4.3 Schedules within the Crusader breeding plan The selection program had to be designed to fit into a practical management program for rabbits, which involves a weekly cycle of natural matings. A number of factors combined to make artificial insemination (to produce large batches of rabbits all of the same age) difficult to implement at the outset of the breeding program. There were no experienced AI technicians in Australia, access to specialist equipment was difficult and drugs used to synchronise oestrous were unavailable and not registered for use. The irregular production of relatively large numbers of rabbits would have posed a challenge for processors to sell given the small scale of the industry and would have made regular supply of breeding stock to the industry difficult. Therefore, the breeding program was designed to fit with a weekly cycle of mating, kindling, weaning and turn-off of finished rabbits. This management cycle closely matches that undertaken on most commercial rabbit farms, with the difference that activities on commercial farms are often undertaken every day rather than on a set day of the week as with Crusader (Table 4.1). 14

23 Table 4.1 Schedule of management and breeding activities for rabbits from conception to slaughter Activity Day of management cycle (day of week) Mating Day 1 (Thursday pm and Friday am) Kindling Day (Monday Thursday) Re-mating of doe Day 42 (Friday) Weaning Day 66 (Monday) 10 week body wt Day 94 (Monday) Slaughter Day 101 or 108 (Fortnightly on a Friday) The production of weekly cohorts of rabbits creates a particular challenge when comparing animals for selection. Groups of rabbits of varying age can be batched together for comparison as long as all rabbits have the minimum of measurements for estimating breeding values for liveweight gain. This is a liveweight at weaning (5 weeks of age) and at 10 weeks of age, 2 weeks before target weight for slaughter is reached. However, rabbits cannot be held over from slaughter (about weeks of age) for an extended period, waiting for younger rabbits to be assessed, as numbers build up quickly and accommodation becomes expensive. In addition, rabbits reach puberty at about weeks of age and become difficult to manage in group pens, even when split on sex, as the males tend to become aggressive and cause serious injury to pen mates. Therefore, the design of the breeding program was a balance between selection intensity achieved and the length of time and number of rabbits held over from slaughter. The biological constraint of service capacity set the minimum number of bucks needed at any one time to approximately 16, the required number to service 120 does when matings are undertaken on 2 days of the week rather than spread evenly throughout the week. From the literature a normal replacement rate for does is in the order of 120% per annum (144 does per annum or 12 does per month for a 120 doe unit). Given the unimproved nature of the population, allowance was made to replace between 14 and 20 does per month. Three structures were investigated in terms of relative merit for genetic gain (Table 4.2). Contemporary groups were created by pooling rabbits produced over 4, 5 or 6 consecutive weeks. As the period increases so does selection intensity, as a given number of replacements can be selected from a larger group. A constant range of female replacement rates (14 to 20 does per month) was assumed at each batch size, giving a constant generation interval for females. Generation interval of the males varies with the configuration of batch size and the number of weeks in a cycle to produce male replacements. The minimum age males can be successfully mated is about 19 weeks of age. Therefore, the 4 week batch system needs to be 6 x 4-week batches (giving a cycle time of 24 weeks) to produce working sons ranging from 21 to 24 weeks of age. In this system the average age of the bucks is 23 weeks. For a 5 week batch (25 week cycle) the average age is 23 weeks, but for a 6 week batch (24 week cycle as shown in Figure 4.1) the average buck age is 22.5 weeks (range 19 to 24 at time of first mating). In terms of relative genetic gain the best option was to create contemporary groups of rabbits born over a period of 6 consecutive weeks, with a 24 week cycle to breed replacement sons. This is due to the combination of two factors the ability to mate bucks at the earliest possible age of 19 weeks (in groups ranging from 19 to 24 weeks of age at commencement of the 6 week mating period) resulting in the lowest generation interval for males; and the greater selection intensity obtained by clubbing together 6 weeks worth of progeny to chose a replacement for each buck. The higher the doe replacement rate, the greater the relative gain as the decrease in generation interval more than compensates for the reduction in selection intensity when more does are kept as replacements. Rather than set a rate of doe turnover, the decision was made to initially cull females on health status and a set of reproductive criteria. This was subsequently found to be in the order of does per month. 15

24 Table 4.2 Comparison of relative genetic response for schemes producing varying size contemporary groups for comparison, to enable selection of meat rabbits in a management system with weekly matings Number Selected per Batch for Bucks and per Month for Does Selection Intensity (SI, sd units) Generation Interval (GI, weeks) Relative Response (ave SI/ave GI) 4 week batch with 24 week cycle Bucks Does Does Does Does week batch with 25 week cycle Bucks Does Does Does Does week batch with 24 week cycle Bucks Does Does Does Does The management difficulties related to holding 6 weeks of rabbits for evaluation (10 to 16 weeks of age) were overcome by undertaking selection in two 3-week cohorts. The required number of replacements (for instance 16 bucks and 20 does for the batch) were chosen from rabbits produced in the first 3 weeks, these were held over from slaughter and re-evaluated once the final 3 weeks of rabbits completed performance testing (Figure 4.1). Some of these rabbits remained in the selected group, while others were dropped in favour of better rabbits in the younger 3-week cohort. From a practical point of view this resulted in only a small number of older rabbits being held back from slaughter until the later age. Once the selection program was tailored to meet management constraints, the next issue to resolve was the number of buck families that should be used to control rate of inbreeding. Rabbit selection lines in France have been established for industry based on 11 sire families (INRA lines, Rochambeau et al. 1994) with reports of accumulated inbreeding of 0.8 to 1% per generation (about 1.4% to 1.7% per annum). Lines established by the University of Valencia have shown no adverse effects of inbreeding (A. Balsco, pers comm.) after 25 years of selection, with 25 sire families used. Due to the complicated structure, created by within-family selection combined with over-lapping generations and females moving between families, it is difficult to gain direct predictions of rates of inbreeding. The combination of three factors (6 week batch, 16 bucks needed to service 120 does at any one time, and 24 week replacement time for bucks) made the choice of 16 sire families the most sensible in the first instance. Analysis of the pedigree structure will allow a reasonable estimation of achieved rate of inbreeding and will be undertaken once the selection program has been running for 3-4 generations. Adjustments can them be made to the number of sire families and other approaches to mate selection may be undertaken. 16

25 4.3.1 Male selection The family structure is based on using 4 of the 16 sire families for a period of 6 weeks as shown in Figure 4.1. These families are then replaced by a different set of 4 families until replacement males are available from the first batch of sires. This gives a 24 week cycle with 4 batches of 4 families (16 families). As an individual buck cannot service the required number of does each week, each family is based on 4 bucks rather than an individual buck, giving a total of 64 bucks used in any one cycle (4 batches each with 4 families each with 4 individual bucks). At the commencement of the breeding program, all mature bucks were stratified on index and allocated to one of 4 families so that each family had bucks with a range in merit, i.e. all the best bucks were not put together in the one family. The bucks were largely unrelated. Until the first generation of replacement bucks was produced, young bucks coming through the system were selected on index merit, with related bucks being allocated to the same family. As the first generation reached selection age, 4 replacement sons from each family were chosen on genetic merit (Crusader Index) regardless of which of the 4 individual bucks in that family was its sire. Therefore, the relationship between bucks within families varies from being as high as full sib to essentially unrelated Female selection Young replacement does are selected on index merit across all does in the contemporary group regardless of family of breeding. Does are allocated to buck families at random with the only restriction being that they are not allocated to the family in which they are bred. Mature does are culled on a combination of traits related to litter production and disease incidence. To date the turnover rate of does has been approximately 16 per month or 133% per annum. 4.4 Response to selection Response to selection has been encouraging with the trend in both phenotypic measurement and estimated breeding values showing an improvement for the two traits in the breeding objective. There has been about a 10% increase in average daily growth rate (Figure 4.2) and a 5% increase in number of kittens weaned (Figure 4.3). There also has been an accompanying improvement in individual liveweight of rabbits at 10 weeks of age and in number of kittens born alive per litter. The trend in estimated breeding values indicates that improvements can be attributed in part to genetic gain, but there has also been a corresponding improvement in rabbit management and husbandry. In addition, low producing animals that had to be retained as part of the breed comparison were culled, giving an immediate lift to current productivity levels. 17

26 Figure 4.1 Diagrammatic representation of 6 week batch mating system with 24 week cycle 18 Family Number Family Number Family Number B B B B Family Number B B B B 2 B B B B B B B B 2 B B B B 3 B B B B Bucks in each family 1 B B B B 2 B B B B 3 B B B B 4 B B B B 2 B B B B 3 B B B B 4 B B B B 3 B B B B 4 B B B B 4 B B B B Batch of contemporaries 2nd cohort 1st cohort Week of cycle Index of EBVs produced for 1 st 3 week cohort when youngest rabbits reach 10 weeks of age Rabbits from 1 st cohort that were displaced by better ones in 2 nd cohort sold for slaughter. Index of EBVs produced for 2 nd 3 week cohort when youngest rabbits reach 10 weeks of age + PRELIMINARY SELECTION 4 bucks/family selected Approx 20 does selected Selected rabbits held over for 3 weeks FINAL SELECTION 4 bucks/family selected Approx. 20 does selected Move into the breeding program at age range of weeks for bucks and 17 weeks for does.

27 Figure 4.2 Genetic and phenotypic trend for average daily gain (ADG, g/hd/day) for grower rabbits from 5 to 10 weeks of age and phenotypic trend for liveweight at 10 weeks of age (10 wk LW, kg) Genetic trend for ADG ADG EBV (g/hd/day) Base Time (year/month) Phenotypic trend ADG 40.0 Average daily gain (g/hd/d) Base Time (year/month) Phenotypic trend 10 wk LW Liveweight (kg) Base Time (year/month) 19

28 Figure 4.3 Genetic trend for number of kittens weaned per litter (NW) and phenotypic trend for number of kittens born alive per litter (NBA) and number of kittens weaned per litter (NW) Genetic trend for NW 0.25 Number of kits per litter Base Time (year/month) Phenotypic trend for NBA and NW Number of kits per litter NBA NW Base Time (year/month) 20

29 5. Application in Industry Industry liaison and application of project outcomes had been an important component of the Crusader Project. The breeding program was designed to provide seed stock directly to industry and each phase of the project included field days and workshops to deliver research outcomes, management and husbandry information and technology in a timely manner. 5.1 Information services for the general public As Crusader is the only production research unit for meat rabbits in Australia, there has been a high level of demand for information from prospective and current farmers, the general media and agricultural science related groups. On average the project has dealt with 6-8 enquiries per week, and at times 6-8 enquiries per day after media releases and field days Educational and community activities Once the breeding facility became operational a number of educational groups have visited. Visiting groups have been diverse as the Uralla Play Group for pre-schoolers, CSIRO s Double Helix Club for young students, high school students studying Food Technology, TAFE Veterinary nurses as a formal part of their reproduction subject, and University of New England students undertaking animal production, health and economics courses. There has been a steady stream of work experience students (high school, TAFE and University) spending time working in the rabbit facility. Some students have undertaken projects on the meat rabbit industry such as Tim Barklay who did a project on rabbit promotion and marketing for his Year 12 Food Technology subject, Kerri-Anne Schumacher who undertook a 3 month project examining the relationship between reproductive performance and liveweight/condition score/health of does at mating for her Veterinary Nursing Diploma and a group of 3 rd year Agricultural Economics students who produced an assignment on rabbit marketing. Crusader has also hosted two Work for the Dole projects, training 8 young people in rabbit management and husbandry. We also hosted an individual on a Commonwealth workplace rehabilitation program who has since become a permanent and highly valued employee on the project. A list of general project activities is given in Appendix Media activities Since the project s inception there has been strong general and rural media interest in Crusader and breeding for meat rabbits. Response to the 4 media releases made by the project resulted in project staff providing in excess of 70 media items including local and national radio interviews, articles in farming press, and television coverage by ABC National news and Landline. A list of media activities for the last year of the project is given in Appendix 8.2 and this is representative of the 3 year project period as a whole First base information pack Due to the strong interest in rabbit farming and broad media coverage achieved by Crusader, we have become the first port of call for general enquiries about rabbit farming. It was evident after our first media release that we needed to provide a basic information kit for general enquiries. This information package has been sent to in excess of 400 people. The project has dealt with a total of over 500 enquires over the three years. In putting together the information pack, we have sought to provide basic information on most aspects of meat rabbit production, in addition to detail of the specific research being undertaken by CSIRO. 21

30 To help meet the demand for information a web site was established for Crusader in December The site seeks to provide general information on meat rabbit farming and useful industry information as well as an update on Crusader research. The site currently contains information on the following topics: i. Meat Rabbit Farming an Introduction (17/04/01) ii. Small Animal Industries for Growth in Australian Agriculture International New Industries Fellowship 2000 (17/04/01) iii. Equipment for Rabbit Sheds (31/08/01) iv. Registered Slaughter Facilities for Rabbits (19/09/01) v. Which Breed of Rabbit is Best (20/09/01) vi. Rabbit Traits that are Important For Profit (11/01/02) vii. Software for Rabbit Data (04/04/02) viii. Disease Resistance in Rabbits (07/06/02) ix. The Rabbit Industry in Europe (07/06/02) Usage of the web page is amongst the highest within CSIRO Livestock Industries, averaging in excess of 400 hits per month. 5.2 Farmer-focused services Field days and meetings Two rabbit field days have been held on site at the Crusader facility one on 22 September 2001 and a second on 6 April Both were attended by approximately 70 people. The programs included the following topics: i. Performance of different rabbit breeds for litter size and growth ii. Rabbit marketing what our clients want iii. Setting up a rabbit farm or abattoir iv. Evaluation of two different commercial diets for growth of grower rabbits v. Display of feeders and nest boxes vi. Rabbit health issues and best practice for disease control and welfare vii. Tools for recording rabbit production data and shed management schedule viii. The rabbit industry in Europe systems of production, breeding programs and marketing ix. Breeding for disease resistance is it possible? x. Comparison of rabbit diets for growth and fitness in grower rabbits xi. Tour of Crusader rabbit facilities In addition to the field days at CSIRO, meat rabbit workshops were held on 29 June 2002 at Boorowa, NSW (Country Gourmet Rabbits Cooperative), 21 July 2002 at Hallam, Victoria (Victorian Gourmet Rabbit Producers Association) and 27 September 2002 at Millicent. Each workshop was attended by between 70 to 100 people and in addition to the Crusader Project featured talks from Safe Food NSW, Dept of Fair Trading, cage and feed manufacturers Specialist workshops Given the high priority farmers placed on control of disease, specialist workshops were organised to assist farmers in the identification and treatment of rabbit diseases. Two Bring Your Sick Rabbit Days were held during the life of the project - one at FD McMaster Laboratory on the 26 February 2000 attended by 46 farmers, and one in southern NSW on 27 May 2000 at Mangoplah attended by 8 rabbit farmers. For these workshops, farmers brought sick rabbits which were examined by veterinarians for external symptoms. The rabbits were then euthanased and post-mortemed giving the participants experience in identifying internal signs related to common rabbit diseases. Local private veterinarians were included in the workshop, as many have not had experience with rabbits in a commercial enterprise. 22

31 Figure 5.1 Farmers at Crusader field day in September 2001 viewing breeder shed (left) and farmers attending Bring Your Sick Rabbit Day at FD McMaster Laboratory in February 2000 (right) Sale of breeding stock Since breeding stock sales commenced with the Crusader field day in September 2001, more than 250 Crusader rabbits have been bought by farmers, with forward orders until the end of There has been a very high acceptance of the use of estimated breeding values (EBVs) to describe the merit of animals, with many farmers happy to purchase rabbits sight unseen. Even though rabbits at this early stage of the selection program will be only marginally superior from a genetic perspective, the provision of EBVs gives farmers the confidence that they are at least buying above average rabbits. Due to the overriding effect of litter size on individual liveweight, it is extremely difficult to identify superior breeding stock without the use of EBVs which adjust for environmental effects Software for production recording One of the project goals was to assist in the development of suitable software for recording production information. Once work had started in this area it became obvious that the complexity of the database required far exceeded the resources originally allocated. Some preliminary development of software was done within the Crusader project and then we continued software development with a rabbit farmer, Daniel Brown of GROWTEC Rabbits, who had already written a program using a compatible system. Rabbit Central Version 2 is now commercially available for approximately $700-$800, including software support. Rabbit Central is a rabbit management and performance recording software designed to assist commercial rabbit breeders with their daily management records and performance recording data. The latest version is a combination of the user interface and database design developed by Crusader, with the functionality of earlier Rabbit Central versions. 23

32 Some features of Rabbit Central V2 are: Displays daily management tasks which can be easily printed Allows the user to define own management schedules Stores and displays all pedigree and performance records Incorporates a range of ways to view data Enables full search functions by animal ID, date or status Incorporates a Pedigree Viewer to easily track related animals Estimates levels of inbreeding based on pedigree information Allows a stock-take of all animals Plots production levels and EBVs Evaluates performance of individual bucks or does Creates a data file to use for data analysis or genetic evaluation Provides easily understandable online help Development of Rabbit Central is still occurring on a continual basis with input from Crusader and other rabbit farmers using the software. More information on Rabbit Central can be found at Linked genetic analysis Genetic links have been established between Crusader and a number of commercial breeding programs by the reciprocal use of bucks. One of these breeding programs is GROWTEC Rabbits, the only commercial enterprise using a selection index based on estimated breeding values to chose replacement stock. However, there are a number of breeders who have expressed an interest in estimating breeding values within farm, and linking to the Crusader program. Work has commenced on data management systems for a national rabbit evaluation program. 24

33 6. Ongoing Research Support for Industry The meat rabbit industry in Australia has grown considerably over the life of the Crusader project, from production of 106 tonnes of meat in 1999 to an estimated 159 tonnes in The industry is now a national one with farmers in most states and there is strong product demand from urban centres in general. There is a clear need for ongoing support for both research and industry development. At the end of the project, CSIRO Livestock Industries has a purpose built meat rabbit facility that can accommodate 120 breeders and their offspring. This comprises two new sheds and a laboratory/storage building, as well as an additional shed converted for rabbit accommodation that can be used for disease studies where animals require isolation. The site also has slaughter and postmortem facilities should these be required. Figure 6.1 Internal view of breeder shed constructed in August 1999 (left) and internal view of grower shed constructed in June 2001 (right) It is vital that the breeding program continue at this stage given the investment in establishing the facilities, setting up selection procedure and establishing the Crusader brand name. Future research should move to a production system focus with emphasis on improving key profit drivers for meat rabbit production. 6.1 Industry feedback on research and development priorities To help define industry priorities for research and development a cross-section of farmers were asked to rank the top 5 research and 5 industry development priorities while attending the Crusader Field Day on the 22 September The field day was attended by 68 rabbit farmers from across New South Wales, representing 35 individual enterprises. The group was asked to rank a list of research and industry issues in order of priority (see Appendix 8.1) Research priorities Disease control in rabbits was identified as being the major research priority for farmers, followed by survival of kittens and growers (Figure 6.2). These two issues are likely to be interrelated. A number of production factors were of moderate priority including growth rate, feed rations, and number of kittens born. Also of moderate priority were rabbit importation (related to a desire for increased productivity) and identifying factors impacting profit. Of lesser priority were shed environment, breeding program design and record keeping. Other research issues mentioned by a small number of farmers were development of cages and equipment, factors related to carcass yield of meat and the importance of milk production for improved weaning weight. Figure 6.2 Priority score given to research issues by meat rabbit farmers 25